Truth-telling and wu-wei

A Meditation on the Art of Not Trying is worth a read. If you take nothing else from that article, believe this: wu-wei – effortlessness – is one of the secrets of effective truth-telling. It is an essential skill if you want to be a truly game-changing public advocate.

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“Riding the Red Horse” is out

Step right up for my first SF sale, the lead story in Riding The Red Horse. That’s the Amazon link; it’s also available as DRM-free epub direct from Castalia. Also included, my nonfiction analysis of the effect of battlefield lasers on military airpower, a development likely to transform warfare in the coming century as radically… Continue reading “Riding the Red Horse” is out

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The Great Beast is here!

The good folks from TekSyndicate showed up yesterday with a pile of parts and did final assembly of the Beast in my dining room. A&D regular John Bell remoted in last night to finish the setup. I’m actually blogging on it now as the last of my work environment transfers over from the old snark.… Continue reading The Great Beast is here!

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Why labor unions have lost their moxie

A lot of U.S. economic policy is distorted by the belief that manufacturing jobs are a magic bullet against declining incomes. Manufacturing’s false promise of a decent payday punctures that illusion. One of the dumb, predictable responses to articles like this is “We need a stronger union movement”. Sorry, but no. Declining manufacturing wages aren’t… Continue reading Why labor unions have lost their moxie

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Like a football player, head down

OK, this is interesting: From some tabloid, we have the following quote: The unidentified witness wrote that the 18-year-old Brown “has his arms out with attitude,” while “The cop just stood there.” The witness added, “Dang if that kid didn’t start running right at the cop like a football player. Head down.” This is exactly… Continue reading Like a football player, head down

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How To Learn Hacking: Version 1.1

I had meant to blog-announce version 1.0 of How To Learn Hacking but got distracted at a crucial moment. So it went out on G+, where I got some useful feedback. This version is revised and very slightly expanded. Enjoy and critique.

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SRC FAQ

A&D regular Mike Swanson did such a nice job on this that I want you all to see it.

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A Closed Future for Mathematics?

In a blog post on Computational Knowledge and the Future of Pure Mathematics Stephen Wolfram lays out a vision that is in many ways exciting and challenging. What if all of mathematics could be expressed in a common formal notation, stored in computers so it is searchable and amenable to computer-assisted discovery and proof of… Continue reading A Closed Future for Mathematics?

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Mysterious cat is mysterious

Our new cat Zola, it appears, has a mysterious past. The computer that knows about the ID chip embedded under his skin thinks he’s a dog. There’s more to the story. And it makes us think we may have misread Zola’s initial behavior. I’m torn between wishing he could tell us what he’d been through,… Continue reading Mysterious cat is mysterious

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My first SF sale!

One of the minor frustrations of my life, up to now, is that though I can sell as much nonfiction as I care to write, fiction sales had eluded me. What made this particularly irksome is that I don’t have only the usual ego reasons for wanting to succeed. I love the science fiction genre… Continue reading My first SF sale!

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Off to Summer Weapons Retreat 2014

Blogging will be light and possibly nonexistent for the next week, as I’m off to Summer Weapons Retreat 2014 for fun and swordplay. Keep out of trouble until I get back…oh, who am I kidding. Go make interesting trouble.

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UPS I did it again

I had to buy a new UPS for my desktop machine yesterday after the old one succumbed to battery death, so Cathy and I made a run to the local MicroCenter. UPS designers have been pissing me off since forever with designs that require you to throw away the entire device when the battery craps… Continue reading UPS I did it again

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